Don't Be Holy! - Chapter 44
“About my existence. When have we ever met? You’ve known about me from the beginning, since I first appeared in this village, haven’t you?”
“That’s because you’re very famous. You must know that.”
“So, did you happen to see me on the street?”
“I saw you in the victory parade.”
“I only removed my helmet a few times. And that was from far away. You must have very good eyes.”
“Yes. I have good eyes. Many people in the capital know your face.”
“So you lived in the capital?”
His grip on her chin became quite threatening as he asked casually. It felt like his hand might slide down at any moment to grab her throat.
Eir barely managed to answer with a trembling voice.
“Yes.”
“Your name is Eir. Your age?”
“Tw-twenty-six.”
“That’s just it. There’s no woman in her twenties with that name in the capital. There were two or three, but they still live there, and my subordinate met them separately last week. Which means there’s no one who lived in the capital and moved to the provinces.”
“That’s!”
“And above all, I saw it.”
“W-what did you see?”
His fingers tightened. A suffocating standoff continued. Eir could only look up at his eyes without saying anything. And the moment she felt his eyes flash, Eir flung herself sideways, rolling off the bed to escape.
As soon as her feet touched the floor, she tried to run toward the door, but Rubel, who had stepped across the bed in one stride, caught her shoulder.
The next thing she knew, Eir’s face was buried in the bed.
“So take it off.”
Rubel ordered while firmly pressing down on her shoulder. His voice was so resolute that if you just heard it, it might have seemed like a perfectly reasonable request.
“Are you crazy? No!”
“Did it sound like I was asking for your opinion? Take it off, I need to check something.”
“Unless you’ve gone mad…….”
“I’m not crazy, and I’m not mad. I’ll just look without touching, so take it off.”
Eir struggled to break free from this crazy man. But before she could even flail her limbs much in her attempt to escape, Rubel pinned her down like he was restraining her.
Then he suddenly straddled her waist and pulled at her clothes.
Along with the sound of fabric stretching to its limit, the neckline pulled back, pressing hard against her windpipe. Eir crawled upward while coughing, but the man subdued her with one hand while muttering irritably.
“Where is it? Where is it?”
His impatient voice demanded to know what he was looking for. The man seemed to believe that just because she was wearing a dress, it would peel off like a snake’s skin if he pulled it down.
Eir desperately cried out while clutching at her constantly slipping clothes.
“Please stop! There’s nothing there!”
Then the man’s large, warm hand smoothly traced up her nape from the bottom. Though she knew it was a cold touch devoid of emotion, it still gave her goosebumps.
“Don’t try to deny it. I clearly saw the mark glowing on your nape.”
A mark?
What mark was he talking about? Could it be that the root pattern of the witch’s mark had appeared?
Eir could immediately guess the answer.
Well, it was because of Granny’s warning before.
When telling her to be careful of three things, Granny had said the curse would be broken after the pattern appeared exactly three times.
Has Rubel recovered his memories of her? Or had the pattern appeared because another curse had been placed on her? When Granny’s curse was first placed on her, the root pattern had briefly appeared on her body too.
While she was lost in these complicated thoughts, the man suddenly grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.
Her disheveled hair, nearly blonde but brown, looked bluish where light didn’t reach while the lit parts rippled with golden hues.
Eir clutched the slipping fabric tightly, desperately covering her ample chest. Her white b*****s were crushed against her arms, and the peaks were barely concealed by the half-fallen fabric.
Though the sight of the woman, flushed with heat between shame and embarrassment, would surely ignite any man’s desire, Rubel merely lifted her chin and thoroughly examined her neckline.
“I’ve never heard of a mark that moves.”
His breath tickled her collarbone, sending a tingling sensation surging up from her core.
